Jewish Agencies Are Finding Ways To Feed Argentines In Turmoil

LISA J. HURIASH KOSHER CONNECTION

In economically devastated Argentina, where it's now starting to get cold, Jewish day school students line up for free kosher lunches: stew, hot soup and fruit salad.

Where the economic crisis has rocked the country's middle class into despair, the Joint Distribution Committee, with assistance from agencies such as the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, has set up kosher kitchens at 49 locations throughout the country. These are in community centers and they dish out one meal each day.

In a country where the average middle-class family is now unemployed, unable to withdraw savings from banks and facing homelessness, it's kosher food that is helping them stay alive.

"We're trying to maintain the fabulous infrastructure of the Jewish community until the storm has passed," says Robert Socolof, communications manager of the JDC in New York.

And it's a nasty storm.

The economic and political chaos in Argentina is leading more of its 200,000 Jews to consider moving to Israel, according to the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental body that assists migrants moving to Israel and Jewish communities abroad. Some estimates place that number at 20,000 new immigrants in the next few years.

Jewish agencies are also helping Argentine Jews relocate to Miami and Puerto Rico, and to a lesser extent: Mexico, Italy, Canada, Ecuador, Ireland, Australia and the United Kingdom. A program in Brazil to help Jews move there is now getting started.

Argentina has long had one of the largest Jewish populations in Latin America, an influx that began at the end of the 19th century. Seeking to escape the pogroms of Eastern Europe and Russia, many Jews were enticed there by the Jewish Colonization Association, a philanthropic group that purchased large tracts of land for resettlement.

According to agency figures, the Argentine Jewish community is providing food, clothing, shelter or job assistance to about 20,000 needy Jews. About 1,700 Jewish families have had to sell their homes. Some are living in cheap hotels or even on the streets, according to the agency.

Due to a reported increase in suicide threats, the JDC has also set up a crisis intervention phone line where callers are referred to social workers for counseling. Michael Winograd, spokesman for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, says his agency has three main approaches: sending aid to Argentina, assisting those Jews who emigrate to Israel and creating LAMP (Latin American Migration Program) to help Jewish Argentines who have moved to Miami find housing and jobs.

"This particular crisis has really touched the hearts of Jewish people here in Miami," Winograd says.

Socolof says assistance has been a challenge: "In Russia, we feed hungry Jews. The difference is, in Russia they know how to be poor."

In Argentina, food packages aren't being given away; he says people who were once generous financial donors to their community now left penniless are too ashamed to be seen standing in line. So that program was scrapped. Now a food voucher program, like food stamps or gift certificates, is working much better. "It saves their dignity and allows them to go shopping," he says.

Extra vouchers for additional food are available for the holidays, he says.

A way to buy kosher food: Visit www.shopinisrael.com to help keep Israeli businesses afloat. Click on the food and wine section and you can buy kosher gift baskets, cookies or even buy from an herbal tea farm which ships teas and spices worldwide. Other things to buy include roses shipped to the United States, silver and jewelry.

Tough spots for kosher, but not impossible: Those who live in Alaska need to be creative to obtain kosher food. According to a story by The Associated Press, some kosher consumers take an extra suitcase when taking a trip outside the state to stock up on kosher food and airfreight orders are a way of life.

The Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska estimates there are more than 5,000 Jews among the state's total population of about 627,000; 20 to 30 families follow kosher rules.

Those families get together in informal cooperatives to pool orders and exchange information about kosher food products available in their cities, such as the occasional kosher pizza in the supermarket freezer section. Many families make their own bread because there are no kosher bakeries.

Kosher on tv: Television chefs are plentiful, but not too many stick to kosher cuisine. Check out Jeff Nathan, head chef and co-owner of Abigael's on Broadway in Manhattan. Since 1998, he has been the host of New Jewish Cuisine seen in millions of homes in 30 states and Washington, D.C.